Opinion
Another timely flip
Bush’s AIDS shift may be temporary
A day after AIDS activist Kimberly Bergalis died of
complications from the disease, President Bush met
Monday with top health officials and the National
Commission on AIDS.
Nice timing.
Bush made another timely announcement Friday: He
will propose a health care reform package next month
during his State of the Union address.
Clearly the campaign speeches of Bush’s prospective
presidential opponents are ringing in the president’s ears.
In fact, his upcoming State of the Union message prom
ises to address many campaign issues, including domestic
sore spots such as the economy.
Although the moves obviously are politically moti
vated, we hope they indicate an important shift in Bush’s
thinking — a shift that may mean the president will fulfill
his promise to devote more time to domestic issues.
One issue brought up at Bush’s meeting with the
National Commission on AIDS is the lack of health care
for people with AIDS.
Dr. June Osborn, chairwoman of the commission, said
the lack of health insurance for millions of Americans will
cause the disease to put “pressures on a lot of our social
structures that were a little shaky to start with.”
“We’ve got a bad decade coming,” she predicted.
Perhaps Bush’s new health care proposal will address
this political hot potato and others related to the AIDS
crisis. In examining such issues, he should be wary of
talking from both sides of his mouth.
On Monday, Bush could not stay away from his favor
ite AIDS-related rhetoric: the “behavioral message.”
On the AIDS commission’s newest member, former
basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Bush said: “I
think Magic can be helpful in this behavioral side of
things. He’s started off sounding like he wants to be, and I
really think therein lies a real outreach.”
Apparently, Bush still believes the spread of AIDS can
be controlled by preaching abstinence. AIDS activists
know better and will no doubt call the president on his
“behavioral message” stance.
Citizens shouldn’t be too hard on Bush for his political
motivations. After all, he is a politician.
But Bush’s past shifts have shown n6w easily he can
pay lip service to politically expedient issues, only to
change his tune at a later time.
—jp.
-LETTERS^ editor
Black media outlets
would enlighten whites
This letter is in response to Bryan
Ganzel’s letter (“Black television
doesn’t curb racism,” DN, Dec. 6).
Frankly, I didn’t hear any angry
responses when Lifetime network
started an all-female network, nor did
I hear any anger when the Catholic
church aired its Catholic network.
Absolutely no one was upset when
The Nashville Network began or any
other “culturally unique” station has
been brought to the air.
I have grown up in Lincoln my
entire life. Talk to me about cultural
diversity, please. 1 went to an all
white school, an all-white church and
predominantly white bars and other
entertainment activity.
Growing up in Lincoln was a bless
ing and a hell. Many things about
Nebraska are wonderful, and I con
sider this state my home. However, I
also know the unheard racism that
exists — yes, exists here in the great
stale of Nebraska as well as every
other state in the union.
When you are alone, or there are
very few people like yourself, you
begin to lose touch with who you are.
There is nothing wrong with the idea
of the great melting pot, which the
world hopes to achieve. But until
every error, stereotype and difference
is examined and understood, there
will never be a melting pot. How can
people be in harmony when they can ’ t
respect, identify or understand each
other’s differences.
The idea that there isn ’ t white pride
is erroneous. How could there not be
when our entire existence is defined
in those terms? Everything I read or
see on television or hear from my
friends is defined from a white per
spective. Naturally, when the major
ity is speaking, it will speak in terms
of the majority. The existence of the
Black Entertainment Television net
work, or any other black medium,
doesn’t take anything away from
whiles. It adds to blacks and enlight
ens whiles.
B lacks arc not defined by rap, jazz,
blues, dancing, the Cosbys, athletes
or any other groups typically seen by
the public; those arc only aspects ol
the black culture, areas that have been
highlighted. Until there was a Miss
Black USA contest, most white people
hadn’t ever considered black women
to be beautiful. They didn’t consider
them to be anything except the other
race.
Change is the only constant in life.
Those who embrace change grow and
evolve. Those who fear and ignore
change watch the innovators pass them
by.
Thyra Lowe
graduate student
community and regional planning
THE PROBLEM YJE ^TU-U UnE VJ\TH
GARY LONGSINE
Arms spending wastes future
£ Ct || 1 he only rational Ameri
I can goal is the fastest
possible nuclear disar
mament.”
Quite possibly, that is the most
revolutionary and important sentence
to appear in print since the explosion
of the atomic bomb. Imagine, a major
national newspaper—The New York
Times — editorial ly endorsing as the
only rational choice what only 10
years ago was labeled wishful, radical
or impossible.
The time to make the future is now.
Historians will cite the recent referen
dum on sovereignty in the Ukraine as
the date marking the end of the Soviet
Union. The day before the vote, the
United States signaled that it would
recognize the Ukraine as independent
if the referendum carried.
The day after the election, Boris
Yeltsin, president of the Russian fed
eration, recognized the independent
status of the Ukraine.
More importantly, officials of the
Bush administration dropped the ar
ticle “the” in reference to Ukraine, in
accordance with the wishes of
Ukraine.
The disintegration of the Soviet
Union seems to be running about two
or three years behind the disintegra
tion of what used to be called the East
Bloc.
Civil war already has erupted be
tween the Serbs and the Croats in
Yugoslavia. In a year or two, we may^
see wars between former republics of
the Soviet Union, or more civil wars
between ethnic groups within them.
The Soviet military — still centrally
controlled — can scarcely contain
Armenia as it stands. Fighting there
already has resulted in many deaths.
The next five years will bring the
future of the world. Our country will
help determine, through action or in
action, the kind of future that the
children of the world will live in.
Inaction may thrust us into a post
apocalyptic future of hunger, disease,
malnutrition, pollution, war and fear.
Swift and thoughtful action can
bring something better. We desper
ately need direction, but no one is
leading the way to the future that we
all want — one of peace, prosperity,
health, clean water and clear con
science; a future free from nuclear
nightmares.
What passes for the political left in
this country — the Democratic party
— has been an accomplice for a dec
ade. W ith its help, the right has crushed
trade unions, fought against popula
tion control, sold national forests,
brought escalating violence to our
cities with drug prohibition, poured
billions into redundant thermonuclear
bombs, given lip service to education
while cutting support for schools and
students and favored an obscene con
centration of wealth over the creation
of new wealth.
We have all suffered, but there are
a few hopeful signs. Congress re
cently approved $400 million in aid to
the Soviet Union to help dismantle
nuclear weapons. Some are sched
uled to be decommissioned in com
pliance with the ST ART treaty. Many
more were scrapped voluntarily by
Mikhail Gorbachev.
These arc necessary and refresh
ing, though tentative and late, first
steps. Meanwhile, on the home front,
it seems to be business as usual for
want of a better idea.
N Only a few weeks ago, Congress
approved spending billions for de
ployment of an anti-ballistic missile
system. It will consist of two bases
(the maximum allowed by existing
treaty) and will protect — not U.S.
cities — but U.S. nuclear missiles.
Defense of U.S. cities from even a
few errant missiles would cost tens of
billions more, require do/.ens of new
bases in violation of treaty and isn’t
even being considered seriously.
Congressional criminal negligence
is further exemplified by the continu
ing escalation of the “black budget’’
—the spending requested by the presi
dent and approved by Congress that is
so secret that only a few members of
Congress ever get to know what’s in
it.
In the last decade it Ji$s Mush
roomed from a few hundred million
dollars for secret intelligence-gather
ing agencies, including the CIA and
the National Security Agency, into
billions and tens of bill ions of dollars.
The black budget has concealed
the design, development, and even
the procurement of entire fleets of
planes from the United States tax
payer. To this day no one knows the
cost of the F-l 17 stealth fighter — a
plane whose very existence was de
nied officially until a squadron of
more than 50 planes became opera
tional.
The cover story of the current issue
of Popular Mechanics uncloaks an
other, lesser-known butexpensive and
secret stealth plane — already famil
iar to readers of Aviation Week. Based
on a design from a firm that lost the
competition to build the original
stealth fighter, the new stealth plane
likely was used in the Persian Gulf
War, according to Popular Mechan
ics.
The magazine says the plane proba
bly was used to locate targets and
illuminate them with laser beams that
guide the “smart” bombs dropped by
the stealth fighter.
To lead our nation and the world
into a bright future, Congress should
lake immediate steps. Waiting for
presidential leadership could be a fa
tal exercise in breath-holding.
The fiasco of the ballistic missile
defense should be stopped immedi
ately. Weapons procurement should
be stripped from the black budget and
exposed before the taxpayer so wc
may rightly judge the usefulness of
things we buy.
But it won’t happen. The process
of weapons systems research, devel
opment and procurement is tremen
dously inertial.
Congress is afraid to make drastic
cuts in stupid, wasteful programs in
cluding the B-2 bomber, the MX mis
sile and the ballistic missile defense
because it would cripple the high-tech
aerospace industry that has been a
driving force in the economy and in
technology for decades.
If wc arc going to be a part of the
future, we must make rational re
structuring of federal government
spending and the economy an imme
diate priority. Rather than cut the
aerospace industry loose, we should
give it a new mission, so the United
Stales can continue to be a techno
logical leader.
A number of civilian projects, in
cluding a new space transportation
system, solar-powered satellites made
inorbitfrom lunar materials and mag
netic levitation trains could be sane
alternatives to continued spending on
thermonuclear explosive devices.
Such spending would provide a
much greater benefit to society in the
way of technological spin-offs and
direct economic benefit than another
nuclear missile ever will. Congress,
make it so.
Longsine is a senior international affairs
and economics major and a Daily Nebraskan
columnist.
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